Shofar Kislev/Tevet 5771
Jewish Family Congregation www.jewishfamilycongregation.org
December 2010
From the Rabbi’s Desk Chanukah is…early… this year. The High Holy Days were early, and so will everything else be, until the calendar correction in March. The Jewish calendar adds a whole extra month, for the leap year, 7 times in a cycle of 19 years, and this is such a year. The merchants we patronize, and even worse, the catalogs which flood our mailboxes, have been gearing up for the other big December holiday for months now. The malls are already fully set up to promote intense shopping for the biggest spending season of the year. But it may very well be that these same merchants, not being attuned to the idiosyncrasies of the Jewish calendar, are going to be caught unprepared for Chanukah starting on December 1. That may mean that the menorahs and dreidls they add to their reindeer and snowmen will be absent as we celebrate our low-key winter holiday this year. And I for one will not regret that at all. Many years ago, the Supreme Court of this country decided that the Christmas tree is not a religious symbol; they were right. It is a pagan practice that was adopted by Christianity a long time ago, and despite the fact that it only appears as Christians prepare to celebrate their holiday in December (and never in March or July, for example), it is in fact not a religious symbol per se. Therefore, it…and the reindeer and the santas and snowmen…can be placed on public property to remind everyone of the joyous winter holiday. But the menorah is…davka***…a religious symbol and not a secular one. The original menorah was built (according to the Torah) to be used in the Dwelling Place that the Israelites schlepped with them through the wilderness en route to Canaan, and ultimately stood in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem. The lighting of that sevenbranched menorah (Hebrew: lamp) was part of the pomp and circumstance of the priestly duties in the Temple. That same menorah was looted from the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, and a representation of it is shown on the Arch of From the Rabbi’s Desk Service Schedule President’s Message Early Childhood Center The Religious School Fabulous Fall Festival Kids Ask the Rabbi JiFTY
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Titus in Rome; captive Judeans are seen carrying the huge menorah. Where did it go from there? An excellent question, for which we need Indiana Jones! Unlike the Christmas tree, the Chanukah menorah is a religious symbol, and should not appear in concert with the other secular symbols of the season, as per the Supreme Court decision. I know that other Jews, Chabad in particular, are very keen about placing giant menorahs on public property and holding candle-lighting ceremonies each night of Chanukah. But to me that is just as wrong as putting a crèche (the manger scene) on public property, which is prohibited by law. This is a case of two wrongs not making a right. The menorah is the indispensible item for celebrating Chanukah. The only religious obligation (mitzvah) we have for this holiday (note: this is not a holy day, unlike Sukkot and Pesakh) is the lighting of the menorah (for some candlelighting tips, see page 12 of this issue of the Shofar). We are not required to fast or sound the shofar or hold a seder. Our people came up with additional customs, like eating latkes or jelly donuts (both fried in oil…to remind us of that little jug of oil), and playing dreidl (to remind us of the miracle of Chanukah by forcing us to look at the initials of the Hebrew words “nes gadol hayah sham,” a great miracle happened there), to add some more pleasure to the holiday. And the custom arose of giving coins to children to celebrate the holiday; I still have some of the silver dollars I received from my grandfather when I was a child. Later, this practice evolved into the giving of gifts, the size and cost of which have grown in response to the marketing of the “December holidays” by merchants eager to make sure that Jews get caught up in the frenzy of spending which accounts for so much of their annual income. Every year I encourage you to resist this ploy, and to confine your gift-giving to small, and especially, useful
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